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Good morning from wherever you read this. Woke up hoping Wenger never makes a “not in my lifetime” statement towards the Tots or Chelski to warrant a placard similar to Carlos Tevez’s now infamous one.

The Argentine has apologised, as have his club, saying he got carried away by the moment. Oh well, our team meanwhile stays focused on having a better campaign next season with van Persie set to commence talks regarding his future at the Ems.

According to BBC’s David Ornstein who broke the news, captain vantastic will meet up with le boss and Ivan Gazidis at Wenger’s abode on Wednesday, even stating a time for the meeting (10:30 BST).

Don’t get lost in excitement just yet, nothing is expected to be sealed then with the Dutch striker set to report for Holland’s Euro 2012 camp on Thursday.

We however do hope it sets in motion the process of an extension of his stay beyond what his current contract states, as well as ward off the suitors eyeing our prized asset.

Meanwhile speaking with the club’s website, van Persie had special praise for fans that cheered the team on at home and especially at away grounds.

“The away fans, they are always here, always singing, always cheering us up even when we are having a bad game, they are always behind us. A big thank you to all of them because they have been unbelievable.”

And he had this to say of the home support, “The last few months have been different class. Every single game – the Spurs game, the Milan game, you can name them all – unbelievable.”

Podolski Eager to Play Ball

Podolski in Arsenal jersey (via Arsenal.com)

Following a bitter-sweet campaign with Köln in which his commendable 18 goals were on the contrary not enough to prevent his hometown club from relegation, Lukas Podolski is ready to begin life at the Ems next season.

Speaking officially as a Gunner for the first time, the German forward said soeaking personally with Wenger through telephone conversations was one of the elements that convinced him to join us.

He also mentioned the Per factor, “He has mentioned things about the Club’s organisation, the training ground, the fans and this has really helped. It might have influenced me to a certain extent but in the end, of course, I took the decision myself.”

Thank you once again Per for the PR. And here we were thinking Vermaelen had done enough to convince Belgian compatriot Jan Vertonghen to follow suit and join but word is he prefers being a ‘neighbour’.

Nothing is confirmed yet however, just as it has gone mellow concerning French midfielder Yann M’Vila. The lull before the bang? We await.

Do follow us on twitter @goonermemoirs and have a great day ahead. Cheers.

I lost my previous post, an awesome one at that. Words cannot describe how pained I feel as I try to remeber everything I wrote in that amazing missive. Now I have to write another post. Here goes.

A really boring week on the Arsenal front if you ask me, all talk no action. We get to see the team play tomorrow though, so that should give us a reason to look forward to the weekend.

Since we are out of the UCL, the only thing one can read about Arsenal is transfer story after story. So I’ll just go through the stories that have caught my attention.

Arsenal have apparently enquired about the availability of Italian midfielder, Ricardo Montolivo. Boro Primorac was in attendance in Fiorentina’s 2-2 draw with Genoa to watch the 27-year-old in action, and a deal is in the offing. He’s free, mature and is a quality player.

But we said the same thing about a certain Moroccan we got for free. Let’s hope Montolivo changes my opinion on free players.

The Daily Mail thinks we are preparing a move for Udinese forward Luis Muriel. He has been dubbed the Colombian Cristiano Ronaldo by some and if he is anything close to the Portuguese machine, we should snap him up. My fear is he may turn out to be more of Nani than Cristiano. Still worth a punt in my opinion.

As if we didn’t already know, Le Boss stressed yesterday that we cannot afford to switch off as we enter the crucial stage of the season. Said He:

“This is the period where what we do matters the most, so we just want to keep our focus on this and not worry about anybody else’s results.”

I have said this over and again, if this season has taught us anything, it is that things can change very quickly. As at the 35th minute mark against the Spuds 3 weeks ago, we were staring at a 13-point gap. Now we are 3 points ahead of the Tiny Tots.

Even though we have games against Citeh and Chelski coming up, I’m more worried about our visit to Stoke. The Brittania has not been a particularly hunting ground and seeing what they did to Citeh, we need to be on guard for 90 mins.

Let me not jump the gun, we ‘travel’ to QPR tomorrow and I expect us to pick up from where we left off. I don’t expect a lot of changes, maybe Wenger might be tempted to bring in Andre Santos for Gibbs. Other than that, I expect the same side that put Villa to the sword. Diaby may get a spot on the bench though.

Cisse is missing for them, so that should reduce their firepower; not like he stands a chance against Koscielny or Vermaelen. Anything less than maximum points is not good enough.

I bet with my Chelsea supporting friend over whose team will finish higher on the table, come May. I’ve been teasing him for 2 weeks now, all I ask is one more week of gloating.

Robin has not scored in a while, we need him to start doing that soon. 5 halves without a goal is a drought for someone of his class. A 3 nil win and 2 RVP goals will mean a perfect weekend of football for me.

That’s yer lot for today. Don’t be like me and have fun this Friday night. Nah, I’m not a boring guy, it’s just that I have this crucial School League game in the morning. I don’t want to pull a Balotelli on my team.

I’ll be here tomorrow with a full report and player ratings. Enjoy the game wherever you watch from. Promises to be fun.

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter @goonermemoirs. Tell your friends to follow us too.

P.S: I saw some story on twitter about a deal for Vertonghen almost done. I don’t know what to make of it. Do let me know what you think in the comments section.

Welcome to another day everyone. I hope the past two days have been good to you.

The picture above reminds me of how much I’ve missed the little Russian we once loved. I still love you very much, Andrei! Nothing sexual of course!

Whew! I’m glad I cleared my mind on that. So enough with the emotional talk.

Plenty Arsenal news this morning, let’s head straight into the post.

It looks like we’ll be making an early move for Ajax captain, Jan Vertonghen this summer.

Having seemingly sealed the deal for Poldi, it is believed we are trying to tie up a cut deal in the region of £7m for Vert, who has only one year left on his contract.

Apparently, Wenger has learned from his mistakes of last summer and is looking to conclude business very early this time around.

It can also be viewed as a ploy to make RVP sign on. A statement of intent, signaling to Robin that the club is serious about challenging for the title next season.

Talking Robin, there’s been talk he’ll be offered 120k to make him stay. We all know he’s not about the money, and while a pay rise will surely help, the team’s chance of competing for trophies is the determining factor.

A major clear out is expected this summer. It is believed some fringe players will be sold or released as the case may be to give space for quality players.

Daily Mail reports that Arshavin’s loan move is likely to be turned into a permanent deal. Naturally you’d expect me to be gutted if that happened.

Arsenal are also looking to make Denilson’s move to Sau Paulo permanent. The Brazilian side are however reluctant to pay him 50,000 quid weekly, something we paid him for how many years? Says a lot really.

It is also believed that players like Nik Bendtner, Vela, Squillaci and Almunia will be sold, freeing the club of up to £23m in annual wages. 23m we hope will go into signing new quality players.

One quality player who won’t be signing for us is Mario Gotze. News broke he signed a new deal with Dortmund yesterday, one which ties him down till 2016.

I won’t say I’m disappointed because I honestly didn’t think we could sign him. I mean, he’s valued at £35m or thereabout, way out of our fishing range.

So with Gotze a no-go and Podolski as good as signed. What player(s) would you love to see at the Emirates next season? In an Arsenal jersey of course!

Morning all. I hope you had an interesting weekend, considering there was no Arsenal game. For all my plans of a weekend dedicated to studying, I did zilch all weekend. It’s been a bit quiet on the Arsenal front as well, bar the usual transfer stories.

Meanwhile, I played footie with my mates yesterday and got injured yet again, so I’m not exactly in the mood to do anything. Straight to the post it is then.

Ajax’s Belgian captain, Jan Vertonghen makes Arsenal news again and he was on the score sheet this weekend which is good to know. He keeps talking up a move to North London but insists a move is far from done.

Joining Arsenal is certainly a prospect that appeals to Vertonghen, and it is believed he has already informed his Mr 10% that he would like to move to Arsenal, should the opportunity arise.

The only thing standing in his way is a fax letter carrying a concrete bid from London, and Vert hopes this letter arrives as soon as possible. Said He:

“If a club of Arsenal’s calibre can reach agreement with Ajax, then I will gladly go over.I have instructed my agent carefully…I haven’t signed anything with them yet.”

Good to know that we can still attract top quality players despite our failings this season. I would not mind having Vertonghen in my team, but the question is, will he be comfortable playing back up to Kos and Verm? Time will tell.

After last week’s dramatic Arsenal win over Newcastle at the Ems, RVP and Tim Krul made a good attempt at starting a riot on the pitch. According to The People however, both the Dutchmen have made up and put the incident behind them.

They have even gone as far as texting each other regularly. Apparently, Tim Krul did not realize he was wasting time and he felt RVP was trying to belittle him. It’s nice to know that episode is closed for good.

Onto more intersting news, Koln are to receive additional payments from Arsenal in Podolski’s proposed move to England. This is dependent on Arsenal’s performance on the fiels of play.

It is believed that the German outft will receive an extra €500,000 should the 26-year-old help us win the Premier League or Champions League during the 4 years of his contract.

There have been stories in the German media indicating that the Podolski transfer will be made official today. I’ll be over the moon if this happens as it sends a strong message to our competitors (and more importantly RVP) that we are ready to compete next season. Add two more quality players and we are good to go for next season.

That’s as it gets from me today fellas. It’s an unusally cold morning and I’m typing this in class as I cannot be bothered to learn anything this morning. There’s a possibility we’ll move the blog to a new domain today, all in a bid to serve you our amazing readers better.

We play Everton on Tuesday night, should be a good one. I’ll be here tomorrow with a preview of the game and hopefully with a link to pictures of Arsenal’s new signing.

Morning gooners. I apologize for the lack of action on the blog in the past few days. It’s due to educational engagements. Exams are drawing nearer and work’s piling up. Sincere apologies. Straight to the stories making rounds then.

Ajax have already started preparing for life after Jan Vertonghen. Ajax scouts have been spotted watching FC Twente’s Douglas in the past couple of weeks and manager Frank De Boer confirmed the move. Said He:

“It is correct that we are keeping tabs on Douglas as a potential replacement for Vertonghen.”

With the 24 year old Belgian defender having made his intentions known, only one destination seems likely.

The tables have changed slightly from last summer though; it’s no longer a question of whether Vertonghen wants to play for Arsenal (because he does), it’s a question of whether Arsenal want him.

Do we need another defender to add to those we’ve got? I doubt, except he’ll be willing to play as back-up. Since he can play anywhere across the back line, we could move Gibbs on. This leaves Andre Santos to slug it out with Vert for the LB slot.

Hey, I’m not calling for us to sell Gibbs right away, it’s only an option. I wouldn’t bet my money on us signing him though.

One player I’d bet my pension on him joining Arsenal is Podolski. A deal seems to have been struck but the journos were getting too excited when they said he had done a medical. His agent, Kon Schramm refuted the story completely.

“He was at no medical, neither in London or anywhere else.”

That was the same thing I said when the stories came up. This doesn’t mean we are less likely to sign him, the media are just getting ahead of themselves by completing the deal in the papers.

But both clubs are sensible enough to know that it’s a huge season for each. It only makes sense for each club to focus on football until the season is over.

Do I think he’ll sign? Absolutely!

So to some bad news. Per, the “Big F*ckin’ German” seems to have ended his own season according the manager. Mert4 got injured at Sunderland and he was ruled out for the long term.

He’s been penciled down to return in 6 weeks but with the season ending in about 10 weeks, Wenger does not believe he’ll be sharp enough to get fit, train and join the first team in a month.

Terrible news you say? Le Boss however laced it with some ‘feel-good’ pills. Andre Santos, Jack Wilshere, Coquelin and Diaby will be returning for the run-in.

I’m super excited to see all these players getting fit and they’ll only make our push for 3rd place stronger.

That’s it from me today. I have to get back to the books. It’s been a great few weeks on the Arsenal front.

Yes, I know we won’t be winning any trophies this season because Wenger didn’t do his bit over the summer.

But if you’re not excited about what’s going on in the club at the moment, I doubt you can ever be.

Keep Van Persie, add a couple of top signings and we’ll be pushing United off their “f*ckin’ perch!”